No problem with being the first but It's always better if someone else has laid the groundworkArchitect- Get an architect into the building to provide you with an assessment of what's required. 

About a month later after talking with about 6 general contractors, numerous subs, 4 architects, and a host of potential wholesale buyers I lined up contractors and decided to hire a GC to do/oversee most of the work and I would project manage/manage the GC.

Depending on the level of work you decide, an architect or engineer may or may not be required to file the job.

If you don't feel comfortable doing this you can always go to a local architect or civil engineer to help you with this.

It can be difficult to try to build all of the potential costs into the pro-forma especially early in the process without a buildable plan, and to some degree it seems the cart has to go before the horse because you don't want to hire the architects to get you a "for construction" plan if you don't have your muni approvals yet. 

It feels that all the Architects and Contractors that I spoke with had different ways to tackle this project and I am worried that this could land me in a open-ended and very costly project.   

I found a really good deal price at 500k and ARV is 750k Construction is going to run 20k but I just met with Architect and im waiting to get his purposely so I can figure out all of these cost but am really confused about the whole Entire Process of hiring a Architect like he said it could take up to a year for permits and dealing with the city also I’m still in process of Securing the funds from a hard money lender.

Do I need an architect?

My husband and I both have a background in Architecture and he is a licensed Architect How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Architect/Engineer4.